Tennis-Organising 2022 Australian Open '10 times' harder, says Tiley

TFILE PHOTO: ennis - Australian Open - Men's Singles Final - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, February 21, 2021 General view during the final between Serbia's Novak Djokovic and Russia's Daniil Medvedev. REUTERS/Kelly Defina

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Open boss Craig Tiley feels organising the 2022 edition of the Grand Slam has been "10 times" more difficult than this year's edition as the highly infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19 takes hold Down Under.

Tiley and his team put in a Herculean effort to stage the tournament safely in February when Australia still had its borders closed, spending a fortune on biosecurity measures to reassure the local community.